The Student's Tale
by WAchick
Summary: I wrote this for my English class based off of Chaucer's writing in The Canterbury Tales.


The Student's Prologue

"I never thought that I would have to come up with a story on the spot, but I guess I can do it. I am a student at Yale University and traveling to Disney World on a sabbatical from my studies. My major goals in life have been based on academic pursuits, but now I need to take some time to just be young and happy before getting a job and becoming a part of the workforce. I know that I am not the easiest thing to look at, but I can realize when I need a break from life. This tale comes from personal experiences that teach a lesson that I should have learned long before I was forced to."

The Student's Tale

There was a young girl named Eliza. Eliza was very close to her grandfather, Jimmy. They spent a lot of time together going to movies and talking. One day she went over to his house just to spend the day hanging out with him as they always did on Saturday afternoons. She walked up to the door and let herself in.

"Grandpa! I am here! Where are you?" she called out as she entered his home.

"In the living room!" he yelled back. Eliza made her way into the living room and saw her grandfather watching _7__th__ Heaven_.

When she noticed what he was watching, she laughed and asked, "Why are you watching this? I thought you hated this show because you always mock it whenever you pass it when you flip through the channels." Her grandfather just grunted in response. "Oh, come on! You can do so much better than that!" Eliza looked at him with her head tilted to the side and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

When he finally answered, he replied, "Nothing. I am perfectly healthy. So what's going on in your life, Ellie?" Eliza smiled when he used his nickname for her. Only her grandfather had called her that for as long as she could remember.

"Not much. I am just trying to get through my senior year of high school. I can't believe that I'm graduating in a month," she replied with a grimace but then smiled as she looked at him. "More importantly, what's going on with your life? What did the doctor say? Are you physically fit?" Thinking about his newly discovered, fatal cancer, Jimmy hesitated when he heard those questions and debated in his head as to how he should answer them. As he continued to think, he started to become angrier as he thought more and more about his quandary. Why should he have to tell her anything? He did not have to report everything to her! His feeling of anger continued to grow, and he finally erupted.

"It's not any of your business! Why do I have to tell you everything? Just leave me alone for once!" he yelled at Eliza whose face held a terrified expression that slowly turned to anger as he went on his tirade.

"Of course it's my business! I love and care about you! You are my grandfather! Why would I not care?" she screamed back at him. "You have no right to tell me that your health is none of my business! Plus, we share every other detail of our lives with each other, so why would you not tell me how your health is?"

"If you must know, I'm perfectly fine," he lied, "but I still don't think that my health is any of your business!"

"Fine! If you do not think that I have a right to know what is going on with your health, then obviously you do not want me to know about the rest of your life either! So I guess I will just leave you alone for good! Is that what you want? It certainly sounds like that's what you want!" Eliza screamed at him, feeling hurt and betrayed.

"Okay! Good! Leave me alone and don't come back!" Jimmy yelled at her in the heat of the moment. Eliza, feeling like he had slapped her across the face, walked out of his house and drove away from him for good. After she arrived at her house, she was hit with the full impact of what had just happened and started sobbing on the couch.

A few weeks later Eliza and Jimmy still had not reconciled with each other. Eliza wished for this reunion with all her heart but could not overcome her pride and feeling of betrayal to go talk to him. She had no idea that Jimmy started the shouting match because he knew that he was dying and pushed her away on purpose to save her from watching him go through the last six months of his life, along with the rest of their family and friends. He did not want to be alone for this battle but knew it was the best possible action to take for his family.

After it had been over a month since the fight between the two, Eliza was talking to her mother, Sara, about the pain she felt from Jimmy's words. "Mom, I miss him so much, but I can't get over myself and go talk to him. I missed him at graduation. Why did he get so mad at me for asking about his health? I care about him and want to make sure that he is okay. Why would he not let me? This is so unlike him," she said. "I have no idea of what I should do."

Sara looked at her thoughtfully and finally replied sadly, "Eliza, I have no idea what is going on with your grandfather. All I know is that life is short and sometimes all we can do is to try to make the most out of our lives that we can. I try calling him every day to get him back in my life, but he ignores my calls. At this point, I do not know what we should do either." The two smiled at each other sadly and wished that they could do something to get Jimmy back in their lives.

Four months later, Eliza was reading the newspaper and looked over the obituaries. When she got to the end, she read one name and looked at it again in shock. Her grandpa was in the obituaries! She sat there for ten minutes in shock and then got up and ran to the phone to call her mom. The phone rang for what seemed like forever before Sara picked up. "Mom, Grandpa's dead! I just read it in the obituaries!" Eliza started crying, and Sara joined her. Eliza then shrieked as she read about the cause of death, "Oh god, it says he died from cancer! How could he not tell us?"

"I don't know honey. I wish he had told us and we could have had time to say goodbye. He died before we could apologize and get on good terms again. I can't believe he's gone!" Sara replied while crying. "Honey, why don't you come over and we'll talk?"

"Okay, I'll be there soon. I love you," Eliza answered and hung up the phone. She packed up some clothes and drove home from college, all the while thinking about her memories of Jimmy. She regretted not trying harder to get back into his life with all her heart. These thoughts just brought her back to what her mom had said to her a few months ago. She agreed with her now. Life was short, and she had to try to live as fulfilling a life as she could. However, she also knew that she would never live as satisfying of a life because she left her relationship with Jimmy in tatters and could never repair it.


End file.
